I had a whole other review planned out for today, but best laid plans go awry easily when you make a minor toy haul from Toys R Us. Not only did I discover the first wave of Transformers Prime, but also the new Marvel Legends!
With the demise of the DC Universe, I’ve found myself drawn more and more to Marvel lately. Journey into Mystery has become one of my favorite monthly books, and I’m getting more and more interested in characters like Steve Rogers and Hope Summers. Not to mention X-Men vs. Avengers, that’s going to be hard to stay away from. Now the return of Marvel Legends is just fueling my interest even more.
Before I get into the figure, I just want to talk about the packaging a bit. Normally I don’t care much for packaging, but I actually like what Hasbro’s trying to accomplish here. The layout and font of the words screams at you from the package, just like those old 90’s comic book covers. I’m also still impressed that Hasbro commissions an original piece of art for each figure on their respective box. These things are entirely unnecessary, but they sure do make for a great feel. I actually took time and studied the box before ripping it open and tossing it.
So I decided to pick Hope Summers as my first new Marvel Legends figure. Not only is she an interesting, and fairly new character to the Marvel Universe, but Hope is also the first female figure of the new line and she looks pretty damned good. One of my biggest gripes with the old Marvel Legends is their persistent inability to produce an attractive looking female figure.
But in the last few years Hasbro has produced a new female “buck” body that has well sculpted proportions and decent articulation. It’s this body that the Hope Summers figure uses, with a few exceptions. I’m pretty sure her shin pieces are entirely new, with the greaves sculpted on. I don’t know if we’ll be seeing them again, but they’d be perfect for warrior women like Sif or even an armored up Valkyrie. I’m sure you hard core fans could think of a few more.
Hope’s wrist bracers and tattered cape are made from the same sturdy but still flexible plastic. I’m particularly fond of the worn and torn look of the sculpts. These pieces do a great job of giving her a battle-ready look, but they can also be removed if you’d rather her look different. Her hands pop off easily at the wrists, while her head can be taken off of the large ball joint atop her neck. A very nice feature, whether it was intentional or not.
Hope’s head sculpt is what really makes this figure stand out. She isn’t the prettiest female figure I’ve ever seen, but her face is definitely attractive and has its own personality. I’m sure this is also aided by her windblown hair, which has a very nice flowing shape to it. It really looks like it was sculpted specifically from a drawing. Continue to page 2…
Looks like Hasbro is very interested in making Mattel look bad… (not like they need that much help there…)
Ah yeah, I can’t wait to find some Marvel Legends! Great review, those Sentinel bases are some of the coolest bases any figure company has done.
Tiny baby hope cant even walk yet…..my how things have changed
She’s a good looking figure, but two inches too tall. Hopefully she’ll be making an appearance in the Marvel Universe line before too long.
I hope we see new Cable in the line soon. That old ML version does not work too well with her.
Making Hope so quickly makes me “hopeful” that he will make an appearance soon. Hooray for the Return of ML!
I thought the same thing. Seeing as how they are making a figure of Cable’s evil clone, Stryfe, makes me hopeful that a new Cable isn’t too far behind.
I hope (no pun intended) Hope is not too hard to find.
She’s a new character with a nicely done figure, and the only female in the first wave of the much-anticipated return of Marvel Legends. The other figures in the wave are three dudes who have been on the shelves in similar forms for years (Cap, Iron Man, Thor), and three dudes whom I bet no one really cares about.
Yep, she’s gonna be a bitch to find.
Hey, I care about those three dudes. Dan Ketch doesn’t get enough love, especially when Marvel decided to relaunch Blaze as Ghost Rider with his design. Klaw’s a classic Avengers villain, and Constrictor was awesome in Avengers: The Initiative.
Yeah, but see, then I’ll get mad if they never make a Diamondback for him to go with.
Man, A:I was a great book. Avengers Academy just doesn’t do it for me the way its predecessor did.
At my TRU, they had one each of Thor, Steve Rogers, Klaw, and Constrictor, two Iron Men, and no Ghost Rider or Hope. Just as you said, I’m worried that Hope might be difficult to come by, since she’s the character from this wave I was most looking forward to getting a figure of.
apparently, a case of 8 figures is one whole wave plus an extra Iron Man, which is what I found Saturday up this way (just the extra IM at Sunset Hills TRU), at least, that’s how I’m seeing the e-tailers solicit a case.
Does she strike anyone else as looking like Siryn? Swap out those leg greaves for a basic X-boot and give her her fathers “cape”, and you’ve got a great variant. I wasn’t aware this lien was doing them, anymore, but with the three that are coming (red flame GR, black suit/transp. shield Cap, blue IM), and a Siryn would have made a decent fourth, plus the only one to actually be a different character!
That’s a beautiful head sculpt which lies miles away from the Marvel Legends of years gone by. I’m feeling optimistic about this new revival and looking forward to more announcements at Toy Fair.
Great review and pics, as always.
That’s a sweet face but still the female buck is too thin for my taste, but they got rid of the odd hip balljoints! Crazy cheap spraymask paintjob on the yellow stripes – i thought it was a Marvel Universe figure at first!
Though the little nitpicks i think i want her – shame though Marvel figs won’t never show up arround here 😛
The body is fairly thin, but since Hope’s a teenager and is generally drawn a bit lankier than most comic women, I’m fine with it.
At the TRU I saw these at yesterday, every figure had some noticeable paint issues. I’m hoping that’s not going to be a problem with this line going forward, but I’m a little concerned.
The video review I saw mentioned she has the same basic body as the Female SHIELD agent (Maria Hill/Sharon) from the SHIELD/Iron Man 2pk last year. Only the shins/sculpted leg greaves are new pieces (aside from the removable cloak and bracers).
i can’t help but observe that her nipples are on top of her boob curve… either she needs some new bras, or her surgeon is a douche.
Yeah, the new Hasbro female buck is a tad too thin, but it still looks way better than DCUC’s… which continues to remind me of a theropod dinosaur more than anything else.
Can’t wait for reviews for the rest of the wave. I read some brief review from Asia, and the reviewer was saying the Ghost Rider was the big disappointment of the wave because of its relatively poor articulation.
To me, Steve Rogers: Super Soldier was the big disappointment of the line for looking like ass. I was so excited about that figure, until I saw it in stores. The head is monstrous and oversized and the body’s too thin, which gives us a very strange looking Cap.
Really? I saw a video review on YT of the variant and he’s shown side by side with the male SHIELD agent, which uses the same body, and it seems Steve is a bit of a steroidal pinhead?
I had pretty much the opposite reaction to the packaging for these new figures. I think they look incredibly generic, and it seems that while the MU line gets A-list Marvel talent on package art (someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t recognize the artist for these), Marvel Legends gets Hasbro’s in-house art team. The art just looks really generic and bland. And speaking of generic, all the text on these packages is in some very generic “comic book” fonts. The whole thing looks like it was designed by someone who doesn’t read comics giving us their version of what they think comic art/text looks like. I’ve seen it before, and, as someone who is both a huge fan of the medium and a semi-professional in it, these sorts of things really bother me.
I also don’t understand why, if Habsro went through the trouble of creating personalized art for each character’s card, they didn’t personalize the packaging more. Each figure gets a one-sentence bio on the back. Most MiniMates get more than. Marvel Universe gets a full paragraph. The old ML figures got not only a paragraph or two about the character, but also personal stats (real name, team affiliation, first appearance, etc.).
This packaging is a huge step backwards for the line versus previous efforts, even the super-generic white cards from Hasbro’s last attempt. I know the figure inside is more important, and while most of them that I saw at TRU looked good (besides Steve Rogers), I passed on picking any up for now because the paint on most of them was so bad. Thor was especially noticeable, and I’m worried that I won’t find a better sample when he comes out, because two of the issues seem like they might be intentional; the silver disks on his chest aren’t painted all the way to the body (just the surface is painted), and his pelt looks like they tried to use the raw black plastic as a base color and give it a brownish brushing to simulate a brown belt with dark shadows, but it ends up just looking like a lot of the paint was scraped off.
It actually is an A-list artist doing the Marvel Legends art, Ed McGuinness. His art isn’t for everyone though, but I like it.
Someone pointed this out to me on another board, and I’ll admit that I just did not recognize his art here. It seriously just looks to me like they got some random Hasbro employee who also happens to have a fairly cartoony style to do the art. Did they maybe tell Ed he had to get all seven pieces of package art done during one trip to the bathroom or something? Even admitting that I’m not a huge fan of the more cartoony art style, the art for this wave just doesn’t have the same quality his best stuff has.
you know, at the risk of antagonizing ‘neko, i think vault owes it to the rest of us to acquire the rest of this wave, build terrax, and review all the figs. he can easily ebay off the figs he doesn’t want, or perhaps set up an IAT contest for them, but i think we the IAT faithfuls deserve a review of the whole “first wave back” for HML… am i wrong here?
I don’t feel I’m “owed” anything. Unless Vault already has plans to pick up the rest of the wave, then by all means, I can’t wait. But I wouldn’t demand the IAT crew review something they have no personal interest in.
Suggestions, yes. Demands, no.
Noisy mentioned this in his Thor review. Does he take the jump into the whole wave or pick and choose? I can not support someone buying figures *JUST* for the reviews, even if they sell it later. If they want to allow a guest review by someone who DOES want the whole line, or can borrow the figures to review them, then fine.
I finally ordered DCUC w20 from ETC and decided to hold off on getting a second set at the same time until I saw the first one. I was already planning on customizing most of the wave, anyway (Light Dove, Kestrel/Chaos Hawk, Zoom, Arsenal/Conner GA), so it’s like finding one set at a store, then waiting for more to show up. All of which is my choice, not feeling obligated to get a second set because of OCD or something.
(Still annoyed that Nekron does NOT have his battery scythe, esp when all but the Arrows and H/D heads/capes are all redecos!)
Yep…Marvel heroes need MULTIPLE GUNS taller than they are. Yawn. Oh, well…at least her gun isn’t molded in pink.
I appreciate the lonely silver age Klaw figure in the new ML line, and wish Marvel could hire the Four Horsemen to create artist-based sculpts based on all of Jack Kirby’s timeless Marvel characters…in the SAME SCALE as DCUCs. Sell these new “MUCs” at comic shops and online…for UNDER $20ea. Imagine that…
You really want to dream big? Manufacture these “Kirby Klassix” in the USA. China’s full up.
I am tired about Marvel Legends I am not gooing to buy this boring line
She’s a teenager, right?
So why not use the perfect-for-a-teenager body, Ser. 14 Psylocke??
I’m afraid that Hasbro just loves this new female body so much that they use it for everybody, no matter who it is.
It’s a nice body although very very thin and tall, and certainly doesn’t work in this application.